The current worldwide energy crisis and the drive to clean up the environment, particularly the atmosphere, has created an urgent need for internal combustion engines having greatly increased fuel efficiency and much cleaner exhaust emissions. Responsive to this need, the automotive industry worldwide has taken action on a panic basis, and as a result of this action some improvements in both above categories have been realized, but only with a considerable sacrifice in engine performance, as is well known to any driver of a present day automobile. Engine starting is difficult and engine performance prior to complete warm-up is extremely poor. Such poor performance is in part due to costly anti-pollution equipment now required on all automotive vehicles and to other design changes which have been made in haste in an effort to meet the pressing requirement of fuel economy and reduced air pollution. In fact, some of the recent efforts of the automotive industry have proven to be self-defeating and it is believed that hasty efforts to find solutions to problems may have taken the industry along some improper paths which are now very difficult to deviate from without great economic loss.
One particular area of development which has been somewhat neglected is that relating to the delivery of the fuel charge to the combustion chambers of piston engines in the most beneficial manner in terms of fuel economy, cleaner emissions and better overall engine performance. Computerized fuel injection systems have been devised, but such systems are extremely costly and are economically feasible only on the most expensive vehicles. Furthermore, while fuel injection possesses a number of known advantages over engines which utilize carburetors, there are also known disadvantages incident to fuel injection.
Carburetors are very satisfactory in establishing a proper ratio of air and fuel in an engine fuel charge but are quite poor in properly mixing and atomizing the fuel. As a result, in carburetor fed engines much raw gasoline in the form of droplets enters the intake manifold and actually wets the manifold and is not atomized or mixed with air for proper combustion and is ultimately exhausted into the atmosphere as a harmful pollutant without utilization of its contained energy.
It is the principal objective of this invention to deal successfully and as completely as possible with all of the above defects of the prior art in a very simplified and comparatively economical manner. By means of the invention, a very significant improvement in fuel economy can be achieved, as much as 25%, with a comparable lessening of atmospheric pollutants in the engine exhaust. At the same time, greatly improved engine performance in all stages of operation is achieved, including cold starting, idling, low speed and high speed response, and most notably improved performance in the critical warm-up period which is highly unsatisfactory in present-day automobiles. With the invention, the most beneficial characteristics of carburetion and fuel injection are retained, while the most unsatisfactory characteristics of both systems are avoided.
The prior art contains some teachings pertaining to the utilization of screens to accomplish the atomization of fuel which is being inducted into the combustion chambers of engines. Apparently, the potential benefits which can be derived from screen atomization have been misunderstood and/or overlooked in the prior art, with the result that this method of atomization has not been adequately investigated or advanced in the art and some early efforts which proved unsuccessful have apparently been abandoned.
To comply with the requirements of 37 C.F.R. 1.56 relative to disclosure of known prior art teachings, the following U.S. Pat. Nos. are made of record herein: 1,173,157 2,701,557 4,058,102 4,088,104 4,091,786 4,092,966.